Prepare to elevate your snack game with these homemade oatmeal creme pies that are leagues above the Little Debbie original. While the store-bought version may be special in our childhood memories, these made-from-scratch treats will create new, more delicious nostalgia.
Featuring soft, chewy oatmeal cookies sandwiched between luscious cream filling, these homemade delights offer a superior taste and texture that will make you wonder why you ever settled for the packaged version.
This was inspired by America's Test Kitchen recipe for Oatmeal Creme Pies.
Jump to:
- Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need for the Cookies
- Making the Cookie Dough - Step-by-Step
- Forming and Baking the Cookies
- Making the Creme Filling and Finishing the Oatmeal Creme Pies
- Comparison to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Other Copycat Recipes
- Recipe
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Better than Store-Bought: Vastly superior flavor when compared to Little Debbie's.
- No Artificial Ingredients: Made with real, wholesome ingredients - no artificial preservatives or flavors.
- Crowd-Pleasing: Impressive homemade treat for family gatherings, potlucks, bake sales, or gifting.
- Elevated Childhood Favorite: Satisfies cravings for childhood favorites with an adult-approved upgrade.
Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need for the Cookies
- Dry Ingredients: For the dry ingredients, I used all-purpose flour, fine sea salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon. You could easily substitute table salt for fine sea salt.
- Wet Ingredients: For the wet ingredients, I used dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, melted unsalted butter, molasses, a large egg, an egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
- Key Ingredients: Old-fashioned oats and raisins are the two key ingredients that contribute to the flavor and texture.
Making the Cookie Dough - Step-by-Step
An interesting aspect of this recipe is that the dough is all mixed by hand-no electric mixer is required!
- I started by whisking the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Then, I set this aside.
- Next, I processed the oats and raisins in a food processor with a steel blade until they were finely ground, which took about a minute. I set this aside as well.
- Next, I whisked the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, melted butter, molasses, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Then, I whisked in the egg and egg yolk.
- After that, I stirred the flour mixture into the wet ingredients using a wooden spoon.
- Finally, I stirred the oat/raisin mixture into the cookie dough until well incorporated.
Forming and Baking the Cookies
Once the cookie dough was made, it was time to form the cookies.
- I started by portioning 12 pieces of dough onto a parchment-lined rimmed half-sheet pan using a cookie scoop that was just under 1 ½ tablespoons. For reference, the diameter of the cookie scoop was 1 10/16 inches.
- To ensure the cookies were the same size, I weighed each piece of dough - 33 grams each (yes, I'm a foodie nerd!). Then, I rolled the dough into a ball in the palms of my hands and flattened it to about 2 ½ inches. This was to help produce perfectly round cookies.
- Once the cookie dough was portioned, rolled, and flattened, I baked the cookies in a preheated 400°F until cracks started to develop around the edges. This took about 7 minutes.
- After seven minutes, the cookies had developed the signature cracks on the top, and I removed the pan from the oven. No matter how careful I am in forming the cookie dough, some cookies inevitably end up a little misshaped. To correct for this, I took a knife and gently reformed the cookies while they were still hot and pliable.
- I let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes. Then, I transferred the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Making the Creme Filling and Finishing the Oatmeal Creme Pies
- Once the cookies were completely cooled, I made the creme filling, using the following ingredients.
- I added the marshmallow Fluff, confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and salt to my food processor with the steel blade.
- I processed the filling ingredients until they were well combined, and the filling was smooth and creamy. This took about 30 seconds.
- Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, I added the filling to the center of the flat side of the cookies. Because of the consistency, the filling started spreading by itself. Then, I placed another cookie, flat side down on the filling. I lightly pressed the top cookie to further distribute the filling, being careful not to break the super-soft cookie.
Comparison to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies
To determine whether the homemade oatmeal creme pies were worth the trouble, I bought a box of Little Debbie's and did a side-by-side comparison.
My cookie, which was 3 ¼ inches, is on the left, and the Little Debbie which was 2 ¾ inches is on the right.
- Appearance: Both cookies had cracks in the surface. The Little Debbie cookie was somewhat darker than mine. Overall, my cookie looked significantly more attractive than the Little Debbie.
- Texture: Both cookies were super soft. The Little Debbie had an almost mushy texture while mine had a nice chewy texture.
- Taste: There was no comparison here. Both the cookie and the filling of the Little Debbie were tasteless. My oatmeal creme pie cookies were packed with flavor from the oats, raisins, molasses, and Cdark brown sugar. The filling was to die for. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and perfectly complemented the cookies.
Bottom line - making this recipe for the oatmeal creme pies was totally worth the effort.
So there you have it! This homemade oatmeal creme pie recipe brings back the nostalgic flavors of your favorite childhood snack and elevates it to a whole new level.
With superior taste, texture, and quality ingredients, these cookies are an amazing upgrade from the store-bought Little Debbie version. Try making a batch today and experience the difference for yourself. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
These oatmeal creme pies should stay fresh for three days if stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
These dark brown sugar contributes to the soft, chewy texture of the cookies and is best used in this recipe. In a pinch, you could use light brown sugar, but the texture will likely be somewhat different.
To achieve the nutty and oaty taste and texture, it's best to use old-fashioned oats.
Marshmallow Fluff is characterized by its fluffier, airier texture and resistance when scooped. In contrast, jet-puffed marshmallow crème is smoother, goopier, and slightly more watery in consistency. Therefore, jet-puffed marshmallow creme tends to make an overly runny filling. You can somewhat compensate for this by adding more confectioners' sugar. However, it's best to use Marshmallow Fluff. I purchased mine at Publix.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Weigh your ingredients using the weights in the recipe below. This is the only way to ensure that your recipe works perfectly every time.
- It might sound unconventional to bake the cookies at such a high temperature for a short time. However, the combination of the baking soda and high temperature causes the cookies to spring up in the oven and then deflate as they cooled, re-creating the distinct dark cracks of the Little Debbie cookies. Also, the cookies will continue to cook as they sit on the baking sheet when removed from the oven.
- With my weight of 33 grams per cookie, I made 27 cookies. I filled 24 cookies to make 12 oatmeal creme pies and let the Master Taste Tester the additional three "factory seconds." The main problem with this was that the cookies themselves were so good that the Master Taste Tester would have liked more!
- When removed from the oven, the cookies might seem underdone. However, this is important to achieve their soft and chewy texture.
- Even though the cookies are large (3 ¼ inches in diameter), their softness makes them somewhat delicate, so handle them carefully to prevent them from breaking.
- You can add more of the creme filling to the cookies if desired. However, the filling stays sticky, so be careful not to add too much that it oozes from the cookies.
Other Copycat Recipes
If you enjoy recreating copycat recipes, check out these delicious copycats.
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Oatmeal Creme Pies - Better Than Little Debbies
Equipment
- 2 half sheet pans
- Parchment paper
- whisk
- 1 ½ Tablespoon Cookie scoop
- 1 Tablespoon Cookie scoop
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup (5 ounces, 142 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (See Tip 1)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups (9 ounces, 255 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup (3 ounces, 85 grams) raisins
- ¾ cup (5.25 ounces, 149 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) vegetable or canola oil
- 4 Tablespoons (¼ cup, 2 ounces, 57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons molasses
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling
- 1 ¼ cups (5 ounces, 142 grams) Marshmallow Fluff (See Tip 2)
- ¾ cup (3 ounces, 85 grams) confectioners' sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (3 ounces, 85 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt (See Tip 1)
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line two rimmed half-sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Add the oats and raisins to a food processor with a steel blade. Process until very finely ground, about one minute. Set aside.
- Whisk together dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, melted butter, molasses, and cinnamon in a large bowl until smooth. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until evenly combined and no dry flour remains. Add the oat/raisin mixture; stir until combined - the mixture will be stiff. (See Tip 3)
- Using a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop, portion 12 pieces of the dough into 1.16 ounces or 33-gram balls. Roll the dough between the palms of your hands and flatten to 2 ½ inches. Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and a second parchment-lined baking sheet. (See Tip 4)
- Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the preheated 400°F oven until the tops begin to crack around the edges for 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely for about 30 minutes. Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.
Filling
- Add the marshmallow Fluff, confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and salt to the food processor with a steel blade. Process until smooth and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary, about 30 seconds.
- Using a one tablespoon cookie scoop add the filling to the middle of the flat side of 12 cookies. Top with the remaining cookies, flat side down. Press lightly to distribute the filling.
- Store in an airtight container for up to three days.
- Yield: 12 Oatmeal Creme Pies. (See Tip 4)
Video
Tips/Notes
- Table salt may be substituted for fine sea salt.
- Marshmallow Fluff and jet-puffed marshmallow crème are not interchangeable in this recipe. Fluff marshmallow crème is characterized by its fluffier, airier texture and resistance when scooped. In contrast, jet-puffed marshmallow crème is smoother, goopier, and slightly more watery in consistency.
- If the cookie dough is too stiff for the wooden spoon, use your hands to combine the ingredients.
- With the dough portioned into 33-gram pieces, you will likely have enough dough to make two to three more cookies. I refer to these as "factory seconds" for the Master Taste Tester!
June says
Delicious